


You Give Me Something To Talk About

by fictionalportal



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Heart-to-Heart, Honesty, Late Night Conversations, Like right after the v6 finale, Post 6.13, Quiet Moment, bein' bees, hand-holding, mostly the bees - Freeform, we all know these nerds can't keep their hands to themselves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 03:44:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17738381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionalportal/pseuds/fictionalportal
Summary: Immediately upon landing in Atlas, the airship is quarantined. While everyone else gets some rest, Blake and Yang finally have some time to talk.





	You Give Me Something To Talk About

As soon as the airship touched down in Atlas, guards swarmed the runway. Qrow demanded to speak with General Ironwood, but the guards were under strict orders to deny all requests for communication and keep the “hostile intruders” in the hangar until further notice. Weiss was sure her father was the one orchestrating this little quarantine, and she insisted on pacing around the rather small inside of the ship to keep busy. With every passing minute, Yang could feel the tension continue to rise. She would have busted through the entire enemy line singlehandedly if her aura wasn’t in desperate need of replenishing. Right now, pure exhaustion and Blake’s hand in hers were the only things keeping those pretentious little Atlas guards from tasting dirt.

By hour three, however, they’d eaten all of Maria’s cashews and Weiss’ restless pacing was reaching dangerous levels of irritating.

“Weiss, cut it out,” Yang demanded. Sure, Weiss had good reasons to be pissed off, but she’d gone through her entire “Father is the Worst” rant about six times now. If Yang had to hear about how he fired her cake butler on her birthday one more time, she just might punch a hole in the roof.

Weiss responded by pausing, throwing an icy sneer in Yang’s direction, and resuming her pacing. Yang learned, in this moment, that it was somehow possible to passive-aggressively pace _at_ someone.

Ruby put her hand on her partner’s shoulder. “Weiss? Are you okay?” If it was anyone else trying to step in, they’d surely be meeting the business end of Myrtenaster, but Ruby was probably the only person who angry Weiss wouldn’t turn to stone on the spot.

With Ruby’s calming touch, Weiss stilled. “Sorry. This is all a little...much.” She shook her head, her perfect ponytail swishing through the air. How was her hair still flawless after an air battle? 

“I think they've got the right idea,” Ruby said. She pointed to the opposite side of the ship where Jaune was drooling on Ren’s shoulder. Nora was spread-eagled across both their laps, completely zonked out. Her snores were like thunderclaps, yet somehow her teammates were sleeping peacefully. They were probably used to the earth-shattering sound by this point. Oscar, still relatively new to near-death situations and very much drained, had passed out on Ren’s other shoulder almost an hour earlier. Yang couldn’t help but smile when she noticed Ren’s hand resting lightly on Nora’s hair.

Weiss slumped her shoulders and looked back to Ruby. “We _have_ been up for almost twenty-four hours...”

Ruby patted Weiss on the back. “And you summoned a giant wasp out of thin air. Twice.”

“That’s not how it--ugh,” she conceded and sank to a seat across from Yang. “Whatever.”

Ruby plopped down next to her, legs crossed. Her eyelids were already drooping shut, and the fact that she wasn’t cradling her weapon like a teddy bear only made clear how exhausted she was. She practically used Crescent Rose as a body pillow most nights.

“Weiss too tired to argue? Never thought I’d see that,” Blake said.

They were trapped in a metal bird and surrounded by a platoon of armed officers--and Blake could still make Yang laugh (alright, it was more of a pathetic snort, but still).

Weiss growled half-heartedly as she crossed her arms. She closed her eyes and dropped her head back against the metal wall with a dull thud. Yang thought she saw her scoot a little closer to Ruby.

Qrow had tired himself out yelling at guards and Maria had dozed off in the captain’s seat hours ago. At least, Yang was pretty sure Maria was sleeping. Between the goggles hiding her eyes and the intermittent sleep-fighting, it was impossible to know for certain.

Blake squeezed Yang’s prosthetic hand. With her aura so depleted, she could only barely feel the pressure against her metal palm, but it was enough to draw her attention away from their shipmates.

Looking into Blake’s perfect, golden eyes, Yang could only smile. She wasn’t totally sure what it meant, this particular smile, but she knew it was reserved for Blake. And she’d been wearing it a lot recently.

“You’re not tired?” Blake asked.

“Someone has to keep watch.” Yang shrugged. “I’ll sleep once we’ve officially set foot in Atlas.”

One of Blake’s cat ears twitched ever so slightly.

Yang tried not stare. Blake’s ears often gave away more than she herself might be willing to share, and Yang didn’t want to call attention to it. Given Atlas’ abhorrent history of abusing faunus, it was no wonder Blake was a little on edge.

On the other hand...it was just the two of them right now. Yang decided to open the conversational door just a crack in case Blake felt like talking about it. “Are you okay being here?”

Blake nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll be alright. Though I should probably find a new bow or something.”

“How ‘bout a hat?” Yang suggested, a hint of her old, bubbly self surfacing. “I bet you’d look pretty good in a beanie.”

Yang swore she saw Blake’s cheeks flush pink, but a strange sound at the front of the ship distracted her.

“Haaa-ahh! Take that!” In the captain’s seat, Maria thrust a fist into the air and kicked up at nothing. “Stu...stupid manticore...” she settled down and drifted back to sleep.

“...Anyways,” Yang said, taking Blake’s hand in both of hers. “I just wanted to let you that I’ve got your back out there.”

“I know you do,” Blake said. One corner of her mouth curled up in the cutest little half-smile Yang had ever seen. She traced her finger over Yang's scraped-up knuckles. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

Yang nodded. “Anything.”

Blake shifted so that they were facing each other a little more. She absently stroked her thumb across the back of Yang’s left hand. “Do you miss being at school?”

“Are you kidding? Fighting Grimm is way easier than fighting to stay awake during one of Port’s lectures.”

Again, Blake’s ear quirked. She narrowed her eyes, examining Yang.

“What?” Yang asked.

“I know you were acing that class.” Before Yang could even ask, Blake’s sheepish admission came. “I might have glanced at your grades.”

“You did?” Yang was more surprised than offended.

“Only once.”

Yang raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“Okay, twice. Midterms and finals our first semester. I was curious.”

“How did you even--” Ah. Right. Blake wasn't exactly a novice hacker. “You could have just asked me.”

“I did. You told me you never checked your grades because you didn’t care about ‘some old guy’s opinion.’”

Yang considered that. That did sound like something she would say...

Blake withdrew her hand and Yang immediately missed the contact. For some reason, Blake was looking anywhere but at Yang as she continued. “I heard some...rumors about your academic standing. I needed to know if my partner was in danger of failing out of school.”

“Who said I was failing?!”

“Cardin’s moronic team. But also Velvet. Weiss.” Blake paused. “And Ruby. She noticed you were skipping classes.”

“Only, like, once a week.”

Blake gave her a look.

“Okay, twice.”

A tired but warm laugh purred in Blake’s chest.

Yang considered letting the matter drop in favor of teasing Blake about that adorable sound, but it was nice talking about this. It wasn’t something she’d ever shared before--she didn’t think anyone cared to know the truth. “People think all sorts of things about me. One look and they assume I’m dumb, or a bimbo, or a...” She trailed off, unwilling to fill in the blank with some of the even less flattering epithets she’d been slapped with ever since puberty hit. She was well aware of the things people said behind her back (and to her face) and she’d learned to stop caring.

“I know how you feel,” Blake said somberly.

Yang nearly slapped her own forehead. Duh. Of course Blake knew what that was like. She’d hid something huge from her teammates, from everyone at school, because she was trying to escape the prejudices that had haunted her for her whole life.

“If you knew about all the rumors, how come you never said anything? Never corrected anybody?” Blake asked.

“I figured it was just better to kick their asses,” Yang said, punching her metal fist into her palm. “And more fun.”

“You like it when people underestimate you?”

“It worked on Adam.”

Blake froze. Her eyes went wide and Yang could see all the muscles in her body tense up.

“Sorry." 

“No,” Blake said quickly. “Don’t be. We shouldn’t pretend like he doesn't--didn’t exist.”

Yang nodded, that spark of courage in Blake’s spirit inspiring as ever. “If that's what you want.”

Blake was quiet for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was hardly louder than a whisper. She muttered something to herself, and her face looked like she’d just discovered the perfect key for an antique lock.

“You know, you don’t have to talk to yourself. I'm great at talking,” Yang joked. “Like you said, I’m basically a secret genius.”

Blake smiled a little, but the next moment her ears wilted forward like they always did when she was nervous. The way her eyes flitted between Yang and the ground only accentuated it. “If you let people believe you’re not as smart as you are, they won’t be disappointed. If anything, they’ll be impressed.”

“No offense, Doctor Belladonna, but you’re making me sound like kind of an asshole.”

“Yang.” Blake’s voice was serious, grounding. She might have been right, on some level. Yang hadn’t thought about it quite so deeply before, but maybe there was a part of her that really relied on that element of surprise. It definitely gave her the upper hand in a fight, but there was something else to it. The gap between what people expected and what was true kept her safe.

Yang took a deep breath. “I guess it’s...like armor. If people know all the wrong things about me, and then they leave one day, it’s like they’re not really leaving me, you know?”

Blake hung her head. It was still a sore subject between them, but they had to talk about it sometime. Why not now, when there was no one awake to listen and literally nothing else they could be doing?

Instead of treading the same old overgrown path they’d been hack-and-slashing their way through since Blake’s return, Yang pointed them in another direction. She placed her left hand on Blake’s cheek, gently encouraging her to look up. Her amber eyes shimmered with tired tears, and Yang found herself marveling at the girl in front of her for the thousandth time that day. Despite everything Blake had been through, she was here. She was alive. And she came back. It had _hurt_ \--but she was the only person who’d ever bothered to try, and that thought made Yang’s chest swell with all sorts of warm feelings.

“You know me,” Yang said, catching one of Blake’s falling tears with her thumb. “The real me. And I'm so good with that.”

Blake caressed Yang’s hand with her own, pulling it away from her face to rest in her lap. “Yeah, well, I think she’s pretty great.” The broken smile on Blake's face made Yang’s heart crack in half, and suddenly she felt her own tears spill over. Why did the sight of Blake crying always do this to her?

She would have pulled Blake into a hug if Blake hadn’t beaten her to it. Lithe, strong arms held tight around Yang’s shoulders, and the tip of a cat ear tickled her cheek. It didn’t take more than half a second for Yang to wrap her arms around Blake’s waist.

They stayed like that for a while, pouring everything they’d pushed down for so long into that embrace. They understood that words could never have done justice to the things they needed to say to each other, and so they let the comfortable silence speak instead.

As Yang held Blake close, she could feel the exhaustion setting into her muscles and bones. She was almost too tired to sit up any longer, but she wanted to linger in Blake’s arms for as long as she could. When she finally caught herself nodding off, she gently pulled away. Her prosthetic arm stayed wrapped around Blake’s back, either unwilling or possibly unable to move. Yang realized that they hadn’t really stopped touched each other since the battle ended, and she didn’t particularly want to. Right now, she needed Blake as close to her as possible, and it was fairly obvious Blake felt the same.

“Well, another perfectly normal day,” Yang said.

Blake exhaled a laugh. “I’m just glad it’s over.”

“Me too.”

Blake rested her head on Yang’s shoulder and tucked up close under her chin. “Goodnight, Yang.”

It was a little silly, but few things made Yang happier than being used as a human pillow. Even after a day of running, sweating, and fighting, Blake still smelled like home. Yang couldn’t explain it, but she felt the overwhelming urge to kiss the spot right on top of Blake’s head between her ears. So she did. A fluttering tickle against Yang’s neck somehow sparked a similar sensation in her stomach, and it was anything but unpleasant.

“Goodnight,” Yang whispered.

***

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! it's really fun to analyze the yin/yang dynamic between the bees and look at all they ways they complement each other, but i noticed that they share the experience of being pretty harshly judged/stereotyped/objectified based on their appearances and i wanted them to talk about it. (and yeah, maybe this is a slight jab at the parts of the fndm who assume yang's a slacker bc DO U SEE HOW HARD SHE WORKS)
> 
> anyway i really love where these two are at in canon, and i'm so excited to see what next season brings for them and the rest of the squad! <3


End file.
